Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

• ἵπταμαι ‎(híptamai)
• πέταμαι ‎(pétamai)

Verb

πέτομαι • ‎(pétomai)

1. I fly
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 13.59

     αὐτὸς δ᾽ ὥς τ᾽ ἴρηξ ὠκύπτερος ὦρτο πέτεσθαι

     And himself, even as a hawk, swift of flight, speedeth forth to fly

   1. (figuratively)
      • 522 BCE – 443 BCE, Pindar, Pythian Ode 8.90

        ὁ δὲ καλόν τι νέον λαχὼν / ἁβρότατος ἔπι μεγάλας / ἐξ ἐλπίδος πέταται / ὑποπτέροις ἀνορέαις

        But he who has gained some fine new thing in his great opulence flies beyond hope on the wings of his manliness

2. I dart, rush; I make haste
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 13.754

     κεκλήγων, διὰ δὲ Τρώων πέτετ᾽ ἠδ᾽ ἐπικούρων

     and with loud shouting sped he through the Trojans and allies

Usage notes

The second aorist is more common than the first.

Inflection

Derived terms

Related terms

See also

• πετάννῡμῐ ‎(petánnūmi)
• πῑ́πτω ‎(pī́ptō)

References

• πέτομαι in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• πέτομαι in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• πέτομαι in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• «πέτομαι» in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• «πέτομαι» in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• “G4072”, in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible, 1979
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill